Medtronic Inc. is currently facing about 1,000 defibrillator lawsuits over products involved in the company’s 2005 defibrillator recall.

However, several patients who were injured after being implanted with defibrillators containing the Sprint Fidelis lead wire—which was recalled on October 14, 2007—have also filed defibrillator lawsuits against the company.

Many of the patients who were injured after being implanted with a Sprint Fidelis lead wire have alleged in their Medtronic lawsuits that the company had been aware of the dangers posed by its product long before it issued the defibrillator recall for the lead wires.

The Sprint Fidelis lead wire was finally recalled after it was linked to the deaths of at least five patients who had used the product.

Because the Sprint Fidelis lead wire is more prone to fractures than other lead wires, it can cause a defibrillator to fail to deliver life-saving jolt to a patients heart during a heart attack, or can deliver painful, unnecessary shocks to the heart.

Some patients who have filed defibrillator lawsuits against Medtronic have alleged that they received as many as 47 unnecessary shocks due to fractures in the Sprint Fidelis lead wire.

These lawsuits have alleged that Medtronic has downplayed the dangers of the recalled lead wires and has asked the company to set up a fund to compensate patients for treatment or surgery needed as a result of the Sprint Fidelis lead wires.

Because about 250,000 patients have been implanted with defibrillators that contain the Sprint Fidelis lead wire, experts are estimating that many more defibrillator lawsuits could soon be filed against Medtronic.

One financial analyst has written that even more Medtronic lawsuits could be filed over Sprint Fidelis than the company is facing over its 2005 defibrillator recall.

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